Torn Apart
by deadmansquawking
Summary: Set during Jak 3. Jak is banished to the wasteland for life and so it is up to Torn to lead the freedom league in the three-way war raging in Haven City. A task that gets infinitely more difficult as Veger orders him to take back the harbour from the KG.


"We're dead. We're SO dead!"

The soldier next to Torn screamed while he desperately fired his rifle in every direction. Torn promptly turned around and punched the man on the side of the head, knocking him to the ground.

"Calm yourself, man," Torn said. "We can pull through this but only if we get our shit together so don't you go lose it. Get up and fight!"

The soldier, although shaken, did as he was told. The commander said they could pull through and the red-clad warrior trusted his commander. Torn had pulled them out of some heavy crap in the past and the tattooed wonder never dove straight into a fight without a backup plan. But Torn felt the pressure. He knew from the very beginning that this mission was pure suicide and why Veger had ordered the strike he could not figure out for the death of him. But if he ever got his hands on the count he would tear the man a new orifice. Ashelin had fought the order every step of the way. But in the end Veger and the city council had proved too powerful even for the red-headed fury. Torn volunteered to take charge of the strike because he knew that if he hadn't Ashelin would have demanded to lead the troops herself. She was too important… not just for Torn but for the very survival of the city.

The order was as simple as it was insane. Take the port and seize the huge shipment of blue eco the KG death bots currently had stationed near the Naughty Ottsel. But he was given only 200 men and 5 tanks, nowhere near enough to conquer an area as large as the port. So he planned to take it as silently as possible. He had Jinx disable the shield wall at the 2nd entrance to the port that the freedom league had put up to divide the KG forces. Then he had taken a single unit in to take down the guard posts while snipers provided support. The first couple of KG bots went down nice and quiet but unfortunately a tiny spider bot had lived just long enough to sound the alarm.

It had only taken a couple of seconds for the KG to mobilise their defence and a wave of metal crashed down on the freedom league units. It started with four lines of spider bots followed by two units of death bots rolling in that curled-up position that allowed them fast travel. Torn and his men blasted through them in less than 5 minutes, losing only a handful of soldiers in the process. But just as they made an advance the main force of bots arrived and everything went to hell.

Approximately 2 hours, 3 tanks and some 100 soldiers later they had managed to clear a path to the Naughty Ottsel and the 500 gallons of eco currently placed on a huge truck. But the KG just kept coming, wave after wave and for every wave a few more of his men fell. This was bad. No, this was worse than bad. If he didn't think of something fast they would all be dead before dinner. But what was the most sensible course of action? Stay and hold the Ottsel while hoping the crazed count would be wise enough to send some much-needed back-up? Or should they get on the truck and make a run for it? Both these options were likely nothing short of suicide.

Before his mind had time to shape anything even resembling a plan not ending in his men getting killed, Torn heard a high-pitched metallic scream and saw another of his men being roasted by a death bot. A warning shouted by the very soldier whom he had knocked down seconds ago made Torn turn his head. With rising dread he saw how two blast bots paved their way through the sandbags his men had stacked as a barrier. By the precursors how he wished Jak was still here.

But Jak wasn't here and there was no time to hesitate. With a feral snarl Torn raised both of his eco pistols and fired wildly while running towards the nearest of the two blast bots. The deadly machine turned and fired three bombs loaded with dark eco in his direction. But with lightning speed Torn pointed his guns upward and hit them with a single shot each, causing them to explode while they were still in mid-air. The shrapnel rained down on him and a sharp piece caught him at the temple. His forehead exploded in pain and blood began seeping down his face. He staggered but didn't fall and continued towards the threat.

He ducked and rolled to avoid the proximity-triggered laser mounted on the underside of the bot. He fired a couple of shots at the right back leg of the walking death mobile and it buckled under the heavy fire. Torn jumped and ducked for his life to avoid the still functioning laser while he jumped onto the damaged leg. He crawled up the bot until he was on top of it. There Torn tore off the panel on the left side of the top-mounted cannon and grabbed a handful of coloured wires.

"These look important," he said with a sly smile and ripped out the wires with his bare hands.

The bots legs started to shake and torn grabbed a hold of the cannon and turned it towards the second blast bot. He pulled the manual trigger and the sabotaged blast bot fired six bombs at its partner-in-crime, taking out a heavy chunk of metal. Torn once again drew his pistols and fired viscously into the hole he had just ripped in the blast bots shell until he heard the familiar beeps indicating the bot was about to be blown sky high.

He jumped off and ran like hell, seeing his troops doing the same. He made it about 15 feet away when the bot exploded, sending him face-first into the dirt. One down. He rose and rubbed the mud out of his eyes. His joints ached as he heaved himself up from the ground. Precursors, he couldn't remember the last time he had been this exhausted. No rest for the wicked though. He might have finished of one enemy. But as the dust cleared he could see the second blast bot mowing down his troopers despite the harm he had caused it earlier. Torn gave a heavy sigh, this was not how he had imagined his day would be. He looked around and spotted Jinx who was busy searching their stock of weapons probably looking for explosives. Torn ran up to him.

"Jinx, stop horsing around and fetch me a boomstick! And a big one at that!"

Absentmindedly, Jinx threw a vulcan barrel in Torn's direction. Hopefully this baby was big enough to pack a punch. Another scream from the lines drew his attention back to the killing machine currently thinning the herd of freedom league soldiers. Torn aimed the rifle at the bot and shook his head. His eyes were blurry and his temple throbbed with pain. He focused and shut out the headache. With a roar he pulled the trigger and the Vulcan barrel spat death. Torn emptied the mag and finally managed to score a solid hit at the optic camera. The bot began to spin, unable to see its targets. The troops stopped running and turned the rifles against their, now nearly helpless, attacker. They showed no mercy to the bot and it was instantly gunned down. As it stopped raining metal, Jinx walked up to Torn, hand in his pocket.

"Nice goin' commander. But if we don't figure out how to deal with these walking toasters we're dead meat. It only took two of them to ram through our thickest defence point and there's gonna be a lot more in a few minutes unless we figure out what to do."

The men who weren't busy shooting looked at Torn while gunfire and explosions surrounded them.

"Damn it!" Torn said, "The next wave is already coming and we've lost more than a hundred men… and half the ones we have left a wounded. All of this crap because of that megalomaniac son of gun Count Veger. All he wanted was to secure this huge freakin' pile of…" Torn's flow of cursing faded as he threw a long glance at the mountain of stacked barrels parked beside the naughty ottsel. "Slap my ass and call me Judy…" Torn grinned and turned towards the soldier standing right beside him.

"What's your name private?"

"Chip sir."

"Chip, can you drive stick?"

2 minutes later Chip was behind the wheel of the huge truck loaded with blue eco. Torn looked at the him. Although the helmet and mask made it impossible to see the soldiers face, Torn guessed Chip was no more than 17… maybe even 16. Just a kid. He was not as big as the average freedom league soldier (pretty much all of them were regular muscle-mountains) although his armour made him appear bigger. Chip seemed edgy.

Torn didn't feel at the top of his game himself. He was half blind from blood oozing from the cut in his temple down into his eyes, his left arm hurt like crazy from when a spider bot electrocuted him and of course the loss of all those fine soldiers hit him harder than all the physical injuries he had sustained today. The commander gripped his Vulcan barrel tight and felt sweat running down his neck. He turned his beaten head, locked eyes with Chip and nodded. The young man gave a short, quick nod in return and stepped on the gas.

The huge armoured truck roared louder than a wasteland metalhead and began accelerating. Four men had moved sandbags out of the truck's path and the vehicle drove straight into a line of death bots trying to curl up and roll away. But it was too late. The truck had gained significant speed and rammed into bots crushing them to pieces. The bodies of fallen bots kept piling up as the screaming ram of metal-clad death ploughed through their ranks. Chip was an excellent driver. Torn was on the passenger seat firing the Vulcan barrel. He didn't even waste energy on aiming anymore. He just pointed the barrel into the sea of enemies. Soon they would reach their destination.

The plan was straightforward. There were three gates leading into the harbour. The one closest to the Naughty Ottsel was sealed of by a wall of bio-mechanic material. It was metalhead territory and they had been kind enough not to take advantage of the situation and attack Torn and his units. So the first gate was no problem. But the second and third gate both led to the industrial section controlled by the KG. However, the second gate was partially blocked by the ruins of the crashed palace. If they could block it completely they could try to advance to the third gate and get back to HQ through that way without having to worry about attacks made on their rear.

The truck would clear a path all the way to the second gate and if the rest of the men followed close enough behind then they could set up positions there and then slowly move through the rest of the way. They would have to fight hard for every inch and things would only get worse once they got into the industrial section. But it was the only way back to HQ, the only way back to Ashelin. A loud crash and the sound of shattered glass pulled Torn back to reality. Suddenly Chip let out a short scream.

Torn turned and saw two big holes in the front window of the truck. Chip was clutching his forehead above the left eye from where blood started to drip. Smoke rose from a hole in his chest armour. With a grunt and the last ounce of his strength the wounded soldier put the pedal to the metal and then started to collapse on the wheel. The truck raged towards the second gate.

"The hell you ain't soldier," Torn yelled. "You're getting outta here alive!"

Torn grabbed the wheel pulled an eco grenade from his belt and activated it, leaving it on the seat. Then he slung Chip over the shoulder and jumped out of the truck which still slaughtered bots by the dozen like an eco-driven metal-demon. Despite the bruises gained from landing on the concrete Torn quickly rose to his feet and started dragging Chip to safety. But the truck reached its destination sooner than he thought and before he knew it a huge explosion tore through the air and threw him to ground nailing him there as the fiery thunder threatened to blow a hole through his eardrums and the heat clawed at the bare skin on his hands and face.

The first explosion was followed by a series of explosions, most of them bigger and louder than the first. As the noise subsided Torn made a feeble attempt to stand. But his legs would not do as he commanded and all he could do was turn from his stomach to his back, slowly opening his eyes. Even though the dust hadn't cleared he could still see the highway… or what was left of it. Torn sighed of relief. The plan had succeeded and he wasn't dead. But before he could rejoice further he heard a metallic laughter and saw a death bot closing in.

"Shit, I can't believe I left anything still walking this close to blast-zone," Torn turned his head looking for a gun. "Well, if it's a fight you want you'll get it you cackling heap of scraps! I'll tear your freaking head off!"

But before Torn could make good of his threat (or, more likely, get killed while trying) a hail of gunfire blasted the bot to bits. About 30 soldiers stormed across the hills of metal and gunned down anything metallic still moving. Two of them helped Torn up from the ground and supported him as he stood on wobbly legs. Torn drew in breath and firmly pushed the soldiers away as he gathered strength to stand on his own two legs. He noticed Jinx had walked up beside him.

"Status," Torn asked impatiently.

"Well, we're halfway through this shit-storm. We don't have to worry about the first and second gate so now we have to diminish the flow from the third gate. Going through the industrial section on foot when they know we're here is suicide. We'll have to hotwire a couple of civilian vehicles to get back to HQ. I've got half the men on it. This half is moving towards the last gate. All in all, we're about a 70 men left; we have one tank still functioning at full capacity and a second still driving but not much more than that."

"It'll have to do… 30 men we can still launch a decent attack and when the other half joins we have a good shot at turning this in our favour. We'll have to abandon the tank as it's too slow to follow us. But since it can be controlled remotely it's not a problem."

"And after that, how do we get through the slums?"

"We'll cross that bridge when we get there. What ma… Shit! Chip!"

Torn had completely forgotten about Chip and now he frantically spun around and scanned the ground. He spotted a leg sticking out from under a thin plate of steel. Torn fell to his knees and started digging. After half a minute he uncovered the maimed body of the young soldier. There was a big gash above Chips left eye and half his face was covered with partially-dried blood. His left arm was covered in 3rd degree burns, his left leg looked completely shattered while the other was also broken and a big piece of metal was lodged between his ribs. From his helmet came only a weak and raspy breathing.

After a medic had loaded Chip onto a vehicle Torn and what was left of his little army started marching towards the third harbour gate. The atmosphere was tense. Most of the soldiers had realised they would not come back from this mission. Jinx walked beside Torn smoking a cigar and loading an eco pistol. Except for the occasional cocking of a gun or a grunt there was dead quiet. But the silence was cut short as the whistling noise of missiles flew through the ranks.

"Damn it!" Torn yelled. "Spread out!"

The soldiers scattered just as a hail of eco-loaded missiles rained down on them and slammed into the bridge. Earth-shattering explosions hurled Torn away like a ragdoll as he ducked for cover. He rolled off the bridge and into the water. Time froze as he sank deeper and deeper towards the bottom. He considered for a brief moment how easy it would be to just give up. How simple it would be to give in. To breathe in and let the water fill his lungs so he would be spared the pain of going on. But the moment passed quickly and instead of opening his lungs he opened his eyes and began swimming towards the surface, feeling just how much strength was still left in his body. And even if that strength would somehow run out he would fight on… carried by sheer force of will.

When Torn reached the surface the screams of dying troopers filled his ears. He found a ledge and heaved himself out of the filthy water. He eyed Jinx who now had a deep wound on his left shoulder.

"What the hell do we do now commander? Those missiles just took out half of our unit!"

"We do what we came here to do in the first place soldier. We're gonna take that bridge and kick some KG ass in the process. Move out men; don't let the death of your brothers be in vain! Let's give 'em hell!"

The men roared and the anger that had been built up through the entire day was let loose. The troopers began rushing forward towards the KG front. Torn drew his guns and started running. He could already see several spider bots ahead and started firing like crazy. All around him the soldiers cried out in anger and frustration, knowing full well that these might be their last moments, they ignored their injuries and pain while they ploughed through the KG. But even in their frenzied state they were slowly being overwhelmed by the sheer number of death bots.

Seeing their numbers dwindling Torn had them form a circle, using the wrecks of 5 crashed civilian zoomers. They fought well. But no matter how many KG's they shot down more just kept coming. They were now only 10 soldiers and all of them exhausted. Jinx ducked behind a bent zoomer door less than 10 feet from Torn's position, his face was pale due to blood loss and all fight seemed to leave his eyes as he stared into the sea of robots. Torn followed his gaze and eyed 10 KG jets speeding towards them from over the water and they appeared to be armed with missiles.

Torn sneered in frustration. They had lost. The jets would wipe them out with one blast and still have enough ammunition to finish of the other half of his forces which were currently gathering vehicles and picking up wounded. Torn felt a jolt of anger and fired viciously at an oncoming death bot. It didn't matter though. It was all over. He would die here. Here, among the scraps of spider bots and the bodies of fallen comrades. He would never see Ashelin again. Never again would he touch her face, her hear laughter or breathe in her scent. Torn looked up at the sky and saw the jets closing in. It wouldn't be much longer now, only 20 seconds or so.

But just as the enemy was about to open fire the sky was lit up by a series of explosions making the jets fall burning from the sky and crash into the water. Torn threw a look over his shoulder and saw a sea of freedom league soldiers emerging from the third gate. All of them were armed to the teeth and itching for a fight. With them came a swarm of hellcats and lines of tanks. The only thing louder than the explosions were the cheers from the survivors located in the little circle of crashed zoomers.

The reinforcements shot and bombed their way through the enemy and reached the small group of survivors within seconds. The tanks crept forward and pushed the KG into the sea while several hellcats descended on the enemy's high mounted gun turrets and blew them to kingdom come. What was left of the original unit started fighting even harder. The KG apparently realized they were now fighting a lost cause, turned tail and started running. But their attempt at escape was futile as the hellcats eradicated every single spider bot and death bot present while the tanks made scrap out of the blast bots. Torn emerged from his cover and looked at his tired men. Though tired they still had enough strength to greet their newly-arrived comrades.

One of the newly arrived soldiers walked up to Torn and saluted. Judging by the emblem on the man's shoulder he was a captain. He removed his helmet and revealed a broad face with a flat nose, grey dreadlocked hair with a matching thick moustache and the facial tattoos signifying that he used to belong to the old crimson guard from the Baron's regime. He looked like he was in his early fifties.

"Commander, I'm Captain Ruperttikjakmos. I'm in charge of the reinforcements. We were ordered by Governor Praxis to assist your unit. We are to escort you back to HQ. We have already cleared a path through the industrial area."

"Good job soldier. We need carriers for our wounded and a fresh supply of ammo. But once that's dealt with we –"

A high-pitched alarm followed by a humming sound interrupted Torn. He looked to the gate. Someone had turned on the shield wall! He hurried through the crowd of reinforcements and opened the control board. He frantically pressed the code but the screen remained unresponsive. Someone had shut down the manual control! The shield was being controlled from HQ.

"What the hell is going on?" Torn looked crestfallen.

"Sir," The captain walked up behind him. "I have just received a message saying Count Veger has turned on the shields in both third gate and the entrance to the slums. Furthermore, he has ordered that they under no circumstances must be shut down. The count has apparently convinced the council it was a good idea that we stay and hold the harbour."

"Damn it!" Torn yelled but quickly regained his composure. "Fine, Clear out the rest of the KG and set up an HQ at the Naughty Ottsel. I want a medical station set up in the neighbouring building and at least 3 tanks stationed at each gate. How many men do we have?"

"600 men, 30 hellcats and 15 tanks, sir."

"Good. Get to work!"

4 hours later Torn stood in the newly established medical centre. Moans of pain and cries for green eco had filled the hall until half an hour ago. Now everything was quite except for fluids dripping through tubes and the occasional medic reading a file at the end of a wounded soldier's bed. In addition to the wounded soldiers at the gate they had found a small number of heavily wounded men all over the harbour area. Although the reinforcements had brought several doctors and plenty of medical equipment half of the wounded probably wouldn't last the night. One such case was Chip. Torn stood at his bed and looked at the broken mess that used to be a young soldier. His body was heavily bandaged and tubes were stuck in his body feeding various liquids into his body. He pitied the boy. Chip had done a good job and this was his reward; a very slow and pointless death. But this was the cost of war. He'd seen it before and he would see it again.

With a sigh Torn turned towards the door and walked out into the cold night. The streets were quiet now except for the occasional cruiser passing by. The harbour had been cleared of KG troops and guards had been posted at every gate. The majority of the soldiers were either sleeping or eating. Torn entered the Naughty Ottsel and looked around. Most of the pinball machines and metal head trophies had been taken down to make place for weapons and the boxing ring in the middle had been replaced with a huge circular holo-projector. Around it stood Captain Ruperttikjakmos, Jinx and Tess, the girl had apparently joined the rescue squad and maybe her aptitude for weapons-design would come in handy. Torn walked up to them.

"Okay people," He said with a tired smile. "Let's try to make this situation work. We're cut off from HQ but at least we can effectively hold the harbour for a very long time should it be necessary. Still, we need to figure out a plan B in case we need to kick ass and take names. Any suggestions?"


End file.
